
*What da hell?! Yeah, that’s what lot of folks are saying tonight that insane ending at the Oscars and boy-oh-boy was it a whopper.
As expected by most watchers, “La La Land” was initially given the Academy Award for Best Picture, but half way through the acceptance speech it became known that the actual, REAL winner was Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight.” Yes, you read that right, “Moonlight” has won the 2017 Oscar for Best Picture.
OK, so what the heck happened? Somebody obviously effed up. BIG. And it wasn’t Steve Harvey, either. Well, from what we can see that “somebody” is looking like it might be Hollywood veteran Warren Beatty. But, maybe not. In any event, here’s what he had to say about what happened.
“I want to tell you what happened. I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, ‘La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye [Dunaway] and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
Yeah, but that doesn’t really explain why Beatty and Dunaway said the best picture was “La La Land.” Why wouldn’t he just ask for help instead of saying something that wasn’t on the card? In any event, the real story is that during post Oscar interviews, actress Emma Stone said that she had her card in her hand that said she won best actress in her hand when Beatty said what he said about having the best actress card.
Maybe it’s karma. Maybe the best film actually won, anyway.
\In any event, watch the drama unfold as it happened:

We still say Warren Beatty has got some ‘splainin’ to do. In the meantime congrats to “Moonlight’s” filmmakers, cast and crew for winning the big one which is beyond belief because the film was made for pennies practically: $1.5 million.
After he caught his breath, here is what the director of “Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins had to say about the surprising turn of events:
“Very clearly, even in my dreams this could not be true, but to hell with dreams! I’m done with it because this is true. Oh, my goodness. I have to say it is true, it’s not fake. We’ve been on the road with these guys for so long and that was so gracious, so generous of them. My love to “La La Land,” my love to everybody. Man.”
The film also won best supporting actor and best writing adapted screenplay. And speaking of best supporting actor, congrats to Mahershala Ali who becomes the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar. Here’s some of what the 43-year-old actor had to say during his acceptance speech:
“I just want to thank my wife, who was in her third trimester during award season,” Ali said during his moving acceptance speech.
“We just had a daughter four days ago,” he continued. “So, I just want to thank her for being such a soldier through this process and help and really carrying me through it all.”
Well deserved, #MahershalaAli! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/ZCFFziGTi4
— RollingOut (@RollingOut) February 27, 2017
And of course we must also extend congratulations to Viola Davis, who took home the best supporting actress Oscar on Sunday for her gut-wrenching performance in the big screen adaptation of August Wilson’s searing play “Fences.”
The 51-year-old, a nominee in 2009 and 2012, bested a field that included two past Oscar winners — Nicole Kidman (“Lion”) and Octavia Spencer (“Hidden Figures”) — as well as Michelle Williams (“Manchester by the Sea”) and Naomie Harris (“Moonlight”).
“O captain! My captain! Denzel Washington, thank you for putting two entities in the driving seat — August and God. And they served you well,” she said, appropriating a verse from US writer Walt Whitman.
In “Fences,” directed by and co-starring Washington, Davis plays the wife of a bitter, frustrated garbage collector in Pittsburgh in the 1950s, who has to come to terms with the missed opportunities of his past.
The bottom line as far as these Oscars is – because of the humongous Best Picture boo boo – they will be remembered 20, 30 years from now. Easily.
2017 Oscars Winner’s List:
Best picture:
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight” (WINNER)
Lead actor:
Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea” (WINNER)
Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land,”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”
Lead actress:
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”
Ruth Negga, “Loving”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land” (WINNER)
Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Supporting actor:
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight” (WINNER)
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”
Supporting actress:
Viola Davis, “Fences” (WINNER)
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”
Best director:
“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle (WINNER)
“Hacksaw Ridge,” Mel Gibson
“Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins
“Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan
“Arrival,” Denis Villeneuve
Animated feature:
“Kubo and the Two Strings,” Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
“Moana,” John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer
“My Life as a Zucchini,” Claude Barras and Max Karli
“The Red Turtle,” Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki
“Zootopia,” Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer (WINNER)
Animated short:
“Blind Vaysha,” Theodore Ushev
“Borrowed Time,” Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
“Pear Cider and Cigarettes,” Robert Valley and Cara Speller
“Pearl,” Patrick Osborne
“Piper,” Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer (WINNER)
Adapted screenplay:
“Arrival,” Eric Heisserer
“Fences,” August Wilson
“Hidden Figures,” Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
“Lion,” Luke Davies
“Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney (WINNER)
Original screenplay:
“20th Century Women,” Mike Mills
“Hell or High Water,” Taylor Sheridan
“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle
“The Lobster,” Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
“Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan (WINNER)
Cinematography:
“Arrival,” Bradford Young
“La La Land,” Linus Sandgren (WINNER)
“Lion,” Greig Fraser
“Moonlight,” James Laxton
“Silence,” Rodrigo Prieto
Best documentary feature:
“13th,” Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish
“Fire at Sea,” Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo
“I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck, Remi Grellety and Hebert Peck
“Life, Animated,” Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman
“O.J.: Made in America,” Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow (WINNER)
Best documentary short subject:
“4.1 Miles,” Daphne Matziaraki
“Extremis,” Dan Krauss
“Joe’s Violin,” Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen
“Watani: My Homeland,” Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis
“The White Helmets,” Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara (WINNER)
Best live action short film:
“Ennemis Interieurs,” Selim Azzazi
“La Femme et le TGV,” Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
“Silent Nights,” Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
“Sing,” Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy (WINNER)
“Timecode,” Juanjo Gimenez
Best foreign language film:
“A Man Called Ove,” Sweden
“Land of Mine,” Denmark
“Tanna,” Australia
“The Salesman,” Iran (WINNER)
“Toni Erdmann,” Germany
Film editing:
“Arrival,” Joe Walker
“Hacksaw Ridge,” John Gilbert (WINNER)
“Hell or High Water,” Jake Roberts
“La La Land,” Tom Cross
“Moonlight,” Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon
Sound editing:
“Arrival,” Sylvain Bellemare (WINNER)
“Deep Water Horizon,” Wylie Stateman and Renee Tondelli
“Hacksaw Ridge,” Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
“La La Land,” Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
“Sully,” Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Sound mixing:
“Arrival,” Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye
“Hacksaw Ridge,” Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace (WINNER)
“La La Land,” Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Production design:
“Arrival,” Patrice Vermette, Paul Hotte
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” Stuart Craig, Anna Pinnock
“Hail, Caesar!,” Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh
“La La Land,” David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (WINNER)
“Passengers,” Guy Hendrix Dyas, Gene Serdena
Original score:
“Jackie,” Mica Levi
“La La Land,” Justin Hurwitz (WINNER)
“Lion,” Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka
“Moonlight,” Nicholas Britell
“Passengers,” Thomas Newman
Original song:
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” “La La Land” — Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” “Trolls” — Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster
“City of Stars,” “La La Land” — Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (WINNER)
“The Empty Chair,” “Jim: The James Foley Story” — Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting
“How Far I’ll Go,” “Moana” — Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Makeup and hair:
“A Man Called Ove,” Eva von Bahr and Love Larson
“Star Trek Beyond,” Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo
“Suicide Squad,” Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson (WINNER)
Costume design:
“Allied,” Joanna Johnston
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” Colleen Atwood (WINNER)
“Florence Foster Jenkins,” Consolata Boyle
“Jackie,” Madeline Fontaine
“La La Land,” Mary Zophres
Visual effects:
“Deepwater Horizon,” Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton
“Doctor Strange,” Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould
“The Jungle Book,” Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon (WINNER)
“Kubo and the Two Strings,” Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould